Tuesday, August 31, 2010

The second breast cancer quilt is on the quilting machine. I have most of it done. It was not very cooperative. I don't know if it was all the glitter glue blocks or my bobbin case on the HQ16 is having issues. My bobbin thread would keep coming out of the "hole" of the bobbin case. I would have to pick out some of the design, back up the quilting design and start again. This one was definitely a challenge but worth it.

I also created the binding for the quilts on Sunday. I've machine sewn the binding on the first quilt and I am in the process of hand sewing it to the back. I should make some progress on this tonight. Last night we went to DH's Aunt's home for dinner. It was such a great time! It was like something out of Better Homes and Gardens. It was so relaxing after a rough couple of days. We are hoping we have had our fill of difficult times but only one person knows what he has in store for us.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

I finally received my ric rack and tried several layouts on the first Breast Cancer quilt. I finally came to a compromise where I was able to add a small amount to the center blocks and set them off without detracting from the rest of the quilt. I'm happy with the results. I added it using super fabric glue since the quilt will probably not be washed with all the other extras on the quilt.

I've decided to try and quilt the second one on the long arm as well. I've carefully removed the bobbles from the second breast cancer quilt. I've photographed and mapped where they should be returned to after the quilting is done. The backing I will be using on the second quilt is a soft pink paisley 108" backing. Therefore, no piecing needed for this backing. I like that!

The next couple of weeks the push is on. I need to have these completed by mid September and shipped back to the sponsors so that they are ready for Breast Cancer month. Hopefully today, I'll have the binding completed on the first quilt and the second quilt quilting completed.

Friday, August 27, 2010

I think it's time for a status check on the blocks that I have completed on the Farmer's Wife quilt. I know that I have a long long way to go but, slow and steady wins the race. I'm not sure if I'm going to place sashing between each block or not. More that likely I will so, I should probably start working on that now as well. That way, when I'm finally completed with all the blocks, I won't feel frustrated that I still need to add sashing. Hope you have a great weekend!

Thursday, August 26, 2010

I've finally finished the borders to the 2nd Breast Cancer Warrior Quilt last night. I'm happy I made some sewing progress on a weekday. I auditioned many colors/fabrics and then ended up picking 3. Dark Pink, White, and a printed hearts pink/white fabric. I think since there are so many different colors of blocks on this quilt top, it needed multiple borders. I added cornerstone blocks and will add a design to each one later. Below are photos of the borders assembled and then sewn on the quilt top. The photo with them applied to the quilt top is before the borders were ironed. That's my least favorite step :-)

Over the next couple of days, I'm going to debate with myself trying to determine should this be stitched in the ditch or put on the long arm. My hesitation with the long arm is because several blocks have cardboard decorations and several have heavy glitter glue. I'm not concerned the glitter will come off on the long arm, it just that these blocks are little more stiffer.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

There are some days when I love a challenge. Yesterday was one of those days. When I came home from our road trip over the weekend, I brought back a sewing machine I had purchased along with a sewing desk for my sister. When I purchased the desk, the seller said that "I'll throw in the sewing machine for $10, I can't get it to sew right". I said OK. That was probably 4 months ago.

The sewing machine was a very basic Brother LS-2125i. When I pulled it out and set it up yesterday, nothing came with it. I had to hunt down the manual on the Internet... no problem. Took me forever how to figure out how to pull out the spool thread pin. This machine has a bobbin case. Luckily I'm familiar with how temperamental their tension adjustments are from my Long Arm. Fixed that, check. Finally, it only came with one foot. Something with blue edges...Finally figured out this must be some type of gathering foot.

I switched out the foot with a low shank snap on foot I had from my current machine and whala...sewed like a sturdy little machine. Success!! Now, a good oiling based on the manual and I have a machine for all those iffy projects you don't want to sew on your "good machine" Thanks for stopping by!~*~Trish~*~

Monday, August 23, 2010

Yesterday, we took a 3 hour road trip to spend the day with my mom and the rest of the family to celebrate her 75th birthday. It was great time spending the day with her and the family. It was a long day too. Left the house at 5:30am and returned home at 7pm and probably put 6.5 hours in the car. We had some car issues once we got to my moms but we luckily made it back home and now it will go into the shop.

While at moms, we all ordered Chinese food and I got a great fortune cookie. It said, "Tough times never last but tough people do". I love it, it's been hectic days lately and it just tells me to hang in there. Now, hopefully the car is not $$$$ to repair.

On the way home we ran into a Roadway Rainbow. They are so fun to see but also distracting when driving. Luckily DH had his camera and was able to capture a quick snapshot.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

On the first Breast Cancer quilt completed, there is just something "extra" missing to me. Also, I know the center two rows were mismatched on purpose since they had to be cut at 4.5" versus the 5" because they came too small. However, to others, this may look like the quilter was having a nip of the whiskey and didn't line things up completely :-)

So, I have an idea. I ordered several yards of 5/8" ric rac from eBay and I'm thinking of adding it to the quilt. I mocked it up on eBay what I anticipate it looking like. I just can't grasp how big 5/8" ric rac will look in the seams. But, what do you think? With, or without? Remember, the photo below with the ric rac is computer generated, so it may be a different color/size when it comes in. Thanks so much for your input!

Friday, August 20, 2010

Some of the blocks that are coming up have so many small pieces. I don't know how everyone does these type quilts with such small sizes. They are a stretch for me. Maybe that's why I'm only completing one per week. This week, I decided to skip a few numbered blocks and do block 19 - Checkerboard. Then I saw all those triangles to be cut for the outside. I said, no way. I'd rather use up a little extra fabric. This was a great block for my scraps which I usually never save. However, with all the block's small pieces, they came in handy. Here's the layout of my cheater block - all squares and then after trimming.

Some random thoughts are: Being my first Jelly Roll Block of the month program, I loved the challenge of the different block each time. Towards the end, my choices were limited so that was challenging. As they are all placed together, I'm not sure I like the non-symmetrical look of all the different blocks. I was going to use the light white/cream in some of the blocks as the sashing but I'm rethinking that now. My favorite blocks are the two in the center. I think because they both have all the cream on them. Thanks for stopping by!~*~Trish~*~

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Yeah, I finished all twelve blocks on the Moose on the Porch Jelly Roll Sampler Quilt Along. Here are blocks 11 and 12. Now, on to block trimming and sashing and I'm almost done. I'll lay them all out and take a pictured tonight. For the last block 12, I didn't have a wide variety of Jelly roll strips left. I'm not too crazy about the outcome, but, I think it will all even out when they are all together.

Monday, August 16, 2010

I quilted the first Breast Cancer quilt on the ProStitcher this weekend. I was able to complete it there because there were not too many bobbles added to the quilt blocks. However, I managed to hit one rhinestone with the quilt machine. Luckily, nothing seems to be damaged. After that rhinestone, I had a little bit of difficulty getting the pattern lined up again. When the ribbon should have been higher, it was lower, and vice versa. So, one band of ribbons is out of synch. You can't see it too much on the front but I know it's there (not in the photo below). Here's a section where you can see the quilting pattern that was completed. Now all it needs is the binding and it's ready to go.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

This is my favorite memory quilt that I created. It was for friends that always loved their Pomeranian dogs Hopper and Bandit. They wanted a way to remember them and here is what I came up with. The layout was just something that came together without a pattern. It was also my first applique using the dog paws. I hope you like it for my entry into the Pets on Quilts contents sponsored by SewCalGal The contest runs until August 21rst. It will be my first contest entry.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

I stopped by our local Joann's this past weekend and they had the new Fashionfusion Fall/Winter 2010 magazine out. It is usually placed on the patterns cabinet. It primarily has pattern photos for Simplicity but it has a back page of 6 coupons (2 - 50% & 4 - 40% off) good for several months. The current magazine's coupons are valid from 8/8/2010 - 1/22/2011.

The magazine sells for $2.99. I place several of these coupons in my purse for those just in case stops. I use them at Michaels as well since they take competitor coupons. I've saved a lot on larger purchases. They just can't be used on sale items which is sometimes hard to find and they can't be used online. Just thought I'd share!Thanks for stopping by!~*~Trish~*~

Sunday, August 8, 2010

When I received the packets of blocks for the Breast Cancer Warrior quilts this year, I noticed a major difference in coloring in each of them. One packet of 150 blocks was more whites, and multi-colored blocks and the other had all different hues of pinks. Here are the two quilt tops that came out of the packages. They are both actually the same size. They both have the two row center around the sponsor block that are 4.5 inch blocks instead of the full 5 inch blocks everywhere else. It needed to be completed this way since some blocks were made smaller. These two row center blocks aren't that noticeable on the whiter quilt but they are on the pink hue quilt. I'm not too fond of it on the pink hue quilt. I actually had to take some blocks apart and re-add the fuchsia blocks to make the outer border even. Now the border looks 5" all around. It just desperately needs ironed.

Borders

I think the quilt with the fuchsia pink border around almost looks complete. I don't think it needs another border. What do you think? However, if I add one to the multicolor, it will be larger. That's OK though. So, I'll need to come up with a border for that one. I thought about using the same pink fabric as what surrounds the sponsor block in the center. May not be dark enough though. I hope they like them :-)

Friday, August 6, 2010

Time just "seams" to be flying by. It's my favorite time of the week again. Although, last night, I found myself panicking again because I had not completed my Farmer's Wife block. I opened the EQ7 and block library and decided to skip a few this week. I jumped over to what they are calling block 16 Calico Puzzle. This time, I decided to cut my half square triangles larger and then cut down. Worked like a dream. This was one of the easiest blocks form me as far as finished product trimming. My goal for this weekend is to sew the second Breast Cancer Quilt top together. Then on to borders for both!Wishing you all a great weekend.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

All the blocks are sewn together for the first Breast Cancer Warrior Quilt. Yeah!! The center two rows around the center block are a 1/2 inch smaller than the rest since they arrived a little smaller. I'm happy with the layout and turnout. Now, I'll sew together the second quilt and then decide on the quilts borders. I left this photo a pretty large size so if you click on it, you should be able to see the details of all the blocks made with love.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

I had the great opportunity to meet one of my blog friends out there. Her name is Stephanie fromA Ditchin' Time Quilts. We had a great visit before Stephanie had to start work. Stephanie works in another wing of the huge hospital where my DH had his treatment for a couple months and now we return for follow up tests. She was so kind to meet me for coffee before she started work and it was while DH was having one of his follow up scan. We laughed and carried on for an hour before Stephanie had to start work. It was great to meet Stephanie and I'm sure we'll have more visits ahead when our visits and schedules are in synch. Thanks so much Stephanie!! I'm so glad we could catch up and meet!

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I leave you with some photos of some new visitors to our flower garden. They were on the Milkweed plant and a cushion. These two guys were traveling together, wherever one flew, the other was shortly behind. They were really small, maybe 2.5-3" each. The orange one was fascinating more when I looked at the photo and the grey one was white when it closed it's wings. They almost looked like moths but they were both fascinating. I'm glad I was able to capture them in photos. If you know what they were, please email me.

Monday, August 2, 2010

The first quilt top has been sewn together, I just need to get a photo for you when it's hanging vertically. This second set of blocks for the second quilt top had a bunch of dark fuchsia blocks. When I tried to add them in randomly, your eye was drawn to them. Also, there were so many of them that it was difficult to space them out.

Then, it came to me. Count them out and see if you can outline the rest in the dark fuchsia blocks. It worked, I had just enough to become the outer part (not border) of the quilt. A few extras are strategically placed elsewhere on the quilt. I laid it out on a quilt backing while I sew the blocks up.

There are some blocks that just break your heart and others that give such hope. The one block that touched my heart the most on this quilt is below the layout photo.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

We had so many visitors in the yard yesterday. Some of which we didn't get photos of. We saw groundhogs, deer (at night), cats (that didn't belong to us), bunnies.... etc.. whew, I'm exhausted. It was relaxing just sitting back talking about so many variables going on right now. I'm busy setting up the second breast cancer quilt but slowly moving into sewing it together. Here's many of the items we saw.

We picked up a chrysalis from a broken limb and brought it in. We turned our back and it was showing the clear window to the butterfly. It's so neat to see. We walked out of the room and came back a few minutes later and whala... beautiful monarch.

Not sure what kind of butterfly this next one is. It sorta looks like a painted lady??

This bee has been so busy gathering pollen (I think that's what that yellow is). His legs are so full of the yellow that I swear he had a hard time flying with all the extra weight.

And finally, close but yet so far... The dogs were fascinated by the rabbits in the yard. If they could only get over the fence! Yes, that's one of those collapsible baby gates. It works great for the dogs. Plus, it comes down so easily when it's time to cut the grass. But, who has grass anymore in our areas. Look at that terrible patchy dead area in the background.